Coated wire.



No. 662,247. Patented Nov.- 20, I900;

(No Model.)

Unrrnn STATES JOHN H. VINTON, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TOGEORGE PARKER, OF SAME PLACE.

PATENT COATED WIRE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 662,247, dated November20, 1900.

Application filed May 4, 1900- Serial No. 15,483. (No specimens.)

To ctZZ whont it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JOHN H. VINTON, acitizen of the United States,residing in Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Coated Wire, of which thefollowing description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, isa specification, like characters on the drawings representing likeparts.

This invention relates to a coated wire especially designed and adaptedfor use with machines which automatically unwind the wire from a coil,cut it into suitable lengths, and bend said out portions into articleswithout stripping, cracking, or otherwise injuring the coating on saidwire.

Prior to this invention the staples or fastenings employed for attachingbuttons to boots or shoes were cut from a coil of blue wire-that is, awire which has been heated so as to give the same a blue color; but thiswire in time becomes oxidized, and as a result the use of wirefastenings or staples for attaching buttons to boots and shoes has beenmaterially diminished owing to the discoloration of the outside of theshoe and the damaged appearance of the same due to the oxidation of thewire-fastenings.

This invention has for its object to produce a coated wire capable ofbeing wound into a coil composed of a plurality of contiguousconvolutions, unwound therefrom, and bent without stripping, cracking,or otherwise disturbing the coating of the wire and which may be madefrom a wire of any desired length, so that the coil of coated wire maybe placed on a suitable reel of a button-fastening orother machine andunwound as needed without stripping the coating from the Wire and bentor shaped overa former without cracking or breaking off the saidcoating. The fastenings formed from the coated wire do not oxidize anddiscolor the outside of boots or shoes, thus removing the objection nowurged against this class of machines. The above objection also appliesto the use of wire not coated, as staples in boots and shoes and otherleather articles, where it is desirable that no oxidation should takeplace.

A coated wire suitable for use on an automatic machine, as abovereferred to, requires that the coating material should be in the natureof a film which is hard, smooth, tough, and capable of permitting thewire to be coiled and uncoiled and bent over a former to make smallarticles like staples without cracking or breaking off the coating, andby a series of long-continued experiments with a large Variety ofsubstances I have ascertained that a coating possessing the requisiteproperties may be made by means of a mixture ofgum-copal, linseed-oil,turpentine,and bone-black, which is applied to the wire in a very thinfilm and subjected to a substantially high temperature in an oven tofirmly bake the coating onto the wire. ln'other words, I employ as thebasis of the coating liquid. copalv-arnish, to which is added boneblackto give the coating a black color, which is the color desired on bootsand shoes.

Figure 1 is a plan view of an apparatus with which the coated coil maybe produced; Fig. 2, a partial section and elevation of the apparatusshown in Fig. l, and Fig. 3 a perspective of a coated coil ready foruse.

Referring to Figs. 1 and 2, a represents a coil of wire which issupported by a reel 6, from which it is unwound and drawn through a bath0 of thin coating liquid of a composition as will be described andthrough a substantially long baking-oven d, forming the outlet-pipe forfurnaces ef, heated, as shown, by gas-burners g h,the pipe dhaving abranch outlet 20, leading to the chimney.

The uncoated wire a on its way to the bath a is passed over guide-rollsij and between the jaws is Z of a friction device and is carried downinto the bath 0 by a wheel or roll m. The wire a is thus coated with theliquid, which is laid smooth and uniform thereon by a felt or otherfibrous wiper n, which is partially immersed in the liquid, and on thepassage of the coated wire through the oven (1 the said coating issubjected to a substantially high temperature and is firmly baked on thewire, and the coated wire issuing from the oven is passed over theguide-roll 0 and under a guide-roll p and is then wound to form the coil10 (shown in Fig. 3) upon a reel 4", rotated, as shown, by a worm-gear sand worm 25 on a shaft a, driven in any suitable manner.

The coated wire on its passage through the baking-oven is under tensionand is kept taut by the friction device at one end and by theguide-rolls 0 p at the other end of said oven, so as to prevent the wirefrom touching the walls of the oven, which would take off the nnbakedcoating from the wire. In this manner all or substantially all of thecoil of wire on the reel b may be provided with a smooth, thin, tough,and uniform coating thoroughly baked thereon and which is then woundupon the reel 1' into the coil, (shown in Fig. 3,) which is suitablytied together by pieces or bands 2 of wire, and when in the conditionshown in Fig. 3 the coil of coated wire is ready for use.

The coil of coated wire shown in Fig. 3 maybe unwound without danger ofstripping or otherwise injuring the coating and may be cut and bent intoany desired form Without cracking or breaking oif the coating, andbesides the particular use above referred to it can be employed for anydesired purpose. The coil of coated wire employed with button-settingand other automatic machines, as above referred to, may and in practicewill be composed of a wire hundreds of feet in length.

The bath 0 is composed of gum-copal, linseed-oil, and turpentine insuitable proportions to form a thin liquid of the consistency of water,which has imparted to it the black 0010! desired by the addition ofbone-black,

which I have found is particularly efiicacious in connection with thecopal-varnish to produce the coating desired, and the proper or desiredconsistency of the coating-bath may be obtained by first making theblack liquor by adding one part of bone-black to eight parts of thecopal-varnish and then thinning down this black liquor by mixing onepart of black liquor with about twenty parts of the copal-varnish.During the process of coating the wire the bath a if permitted wouldbecome more or less concentrated and too much of the coating materialwould be applied to the wire, which would resultin too thick a coatingthat is liable to be stripped ofif in the automatic machine and isfurther liable to crack or break off when the wire is bent over a smallformer to form a small article, such as a staple, and therefore the bathis main tained very thin and at a substantially coristant consistency,like water, by the addition from time to time of the thin copal-varnishwithout the bone-black.

The apparatus herein shown and the process herein described are notherein claimed, as they respectively form the subject-matter ofapplications Serial No. 7,639, filed March 7, 1900, and Serial No.15,484, filed May 4, 1900.

I claim As a new article of manufacture, a wire having a thin coating ofcopal-varnish and bone-black firmly baked thereon, and possessing thefollowing characteristics, viz: capability of being wound into the formof a coil, unwound therefrom, used in automatic machines and bent intosmall articles without stripping, cracking or breaking 06 the saidcoating, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in thepresence of two subscribing witnesses.

JOHN H. VINTON.

Witnesses:

JAS. H. CHURCHILL, J. MURPHY.

